1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a novel polymer that can be used as resist material (for UV, electron rays, etc.), electronics materials (semiconductors, etc.), adhesives and functionally gradient materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been attempted for synthesizing polymers having group IV metal atoms in the main chain. For instance, a method of conducting redox reaction using Sn(CH(SiMe.sub.3).sub.2).sub.2 and a substituted p-benzoquinone (refer to Preprint I for The 57th Autumn Meeting of Japan Chemical Society, 1988, p 108, Polymer Preprints, Japan 37(2), 338 (1988)) or a method of reacting SnCl.sub.2 and a substituted benzoquinone has been known. However, polymers obtained by such a method are insoluble in solvent and can not be used as the polymer materials, as well as detailed structures for the reaction products are unknown.
It has been considered so far that a soluble polymer with a well-defined structure containing group IV metal atoms in the main chain can not be synthesized because the resultant polymer itself is insoluble or the resultant polymer is highly reactive and becomes insoluble by gelation due to side reactions.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a solvent-soluble polymer, taking notice on the fact that a polymer containing group IV metal atoms in the main chain has a possibility to various application uses such as resist materials, electronics materials or adhesives.
The present inventor has made various studies on the reason why the polymer proposed so far containing the group IV metal atoms in the main chain is insoluble and, as a result, has found that a polymer having high molecular weight and solvent solubility can be obtained by modifying ligands bonding to the group IV metal atoms.